Organization helps with health needs 11/11/00Organization helps with health needsBy RAY WESTBROOKAvalanche-JournalLutheran Social Services is ministering to the health needs of Lubbock residents who have chronic problems that are affected by nutrition.

Those include diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and chronic obesity.

"Our nurses provide one-on-one counseling for low-income people who need to learn how to eat, how to manage their diabetes and how to manage their high blood pressure," said Amy Berry, executive director of community services.

The agency's Health for Friends Clinic, 1318 Broadway, has been in operation for eight years.

"It was founded in 1992 after a community needs assessment done by the United Way showed a lot of Lubbock folks just didn't have good access to health care," she explained.

Two licensed vocational nurses  Dominga Diaz and Noemi Rodriguez  provide services to patients who come to the clinic. They also teach patients how to use their medications, how to watch for blood sugar that is getting too low and how to watch for blood sugar that is getting too high.

"We do an awful lot of teaching," Berry said. "Because the United Way has been very generous, we can do that free of charge right now."

The clinic offers another free service that has become important in light of national estimates that Berry said indicate half the people who have diabetes are unaware of it.

"It is highly underdiagnosed," she said. "So, we will screen anybody free for diabetes to see if they may have high blood sugar, which is an indicator."

She explained that the clinic is not qualified to diagnose diabetes but often can determine whether it is likely. If it is, then the patient is referred to a physician for in-depth testing.

"We don't ask any income questions if somebody has come to one of our screenings, because we feel like that information is crucial  that's a life or death sort of thing that somebody needs to know," she said.

Communication with patients is available in Spanish. Additional information is available by calling the clinic at 765-2639.

Ray Westbrook can be contacted at 766-8711 or rwestbrook@lubbockonline.com